“Remind me
again why I had to come along?” he asked tiredly.
“Oh, hush,”
Lucy replied, still plowing ahead, her swollen stomach pushing other customers
aside. It was a miracle she didn’t go into labor right then and there.
He hated
that. He hated that she could just say, “hush” and he would shut up. Where on
earth did his independence go?
Right.
At the
altar. When he married the mad woman
who was now half pulling his arm off in her haste to get to a rather creepy
looking teddy bear. He shook her hand off carefully.
“Listen, I
need a coffee. I’ll meet you back at the car, shall I?” he said, backing away
as the words left his mouth. She opened her mouth to protest, but he ducked
behind a large woman carrying an enormous box with “Princess Party House
Deluxe!” emblazoned across the side.
As soon as
he got out of the shop, he immediately took out his pack of smokes, taking one
out and lighting it as he made his way to the small coffee shop across the
street. He didn’t have any real intention of getting a coffee, of course, but
he supposed he might as well make it more believable by actually going to a
coffee house.
“Dylan?”
He stopped
short. The voice washed over him like rich velvet, bringing back half
remembered memories of steamy nights in cheap hotel rooms. Turning, he found a
woman with short, black, windswept hair sitting at a table covered with papers
and books.
“It is Dylan, isn’t it?” she said, uncertainly.
“Andrea,” he
said, a stream of smoke escaping from his mouth as he said her name.
She let out
a sigh of relief before smiling. “How’ve you been? Sit down! I haven’t seen you
in what…a year?”
He nodded
and sat down across from her, looking away from her dark eyes. “Yeah, been a
bit busy,” he said. God, of all the times to come across her, it had to be now. He saw her eyes flick toward his
wedding ring for a moment before returning to his face, her smile slipping
slightly.
“I thought
you said you weren’t the marrying type,” she said, her voice taking on the fake
light tone it always did when she was upset.
He didn’t
answer, merely taking a drag from the cigarette and blowing it out into the
sky. “Still working on the book, then?” he said, gesturing at the papers on the
table.
She nodded,
sipping her coffee before asking for a cigarette. He gave her one and lit it
for her. Leaning back in her chair, she took a long drag from the cigarette,
her eyes fixed on him. He shifted uncomfortably in his chair but gave no other
sign that he noticed the obvious tension hanging over them like a cobweb.
“Don’t
change the subject, Dylan,” she said, swirling her coffee. “You always did
that. Changing the subject when you were hiding something.”
He let out a
laugh. “I’m not hiding anything.”
“Then why
didn’t you answer my question?”
“It wasn’t a
question. It was a statement.”
“The
question was implied, Dylan.” He felt a small shiver run down his spine every
time she said his name, letting it roll from her lips like some sort of exotic
fruit.
He shrugged.
“People change.”
“Don’t give
me that bullshit. You got her pregnant, didn’t you.”
He looked
away from her, flicking some ash from the end of his cigarette.
“I knew it.
Her dad probably threatened you,” she said, a derisive smile playing on her
lips.
“Her
brother, actually,” he said.
“What’s she
like?”
“A right
pain in the ass, if you must know,” he said, taking another drag from his
cigarette.
“Serves you right,”
she said, rolling her eyes. “Well, I guess it shows you’re responsible, at
least.”
“Trust me,
if her brother wasn’t a boxing champ, I would have refused,” he said, running a
hand over his face.
“Jesus,” she
said, the smoke escaping from her lips as she spoke.
“Yup,” he
sighed. “The entire family’s so bloody controlling.”
“Oh, God,
they didn’t make you drop out of the band, did they?”
He looked
down at the generic office worker outfit he had on with a what-the-hell-do-you-think
look. She closed her eyes as if she had just seen something horribly indecent.
“Please tell me you don’t drive a minivan. Anything but the minivan.”
He grimaced
before nodding.
“Fucking
hell,” she whispered. “And all because you didn’t use protection.”
“We did,” he said. “I think the condom
broke, though.”
“She’s
probably some pretty little blonde chick, right?”
“Redhead.”
“Even
worse.”
He laughed
again, snuffing out the cigarette.
“You still
do that, then,” she said, gesturing at his cigarette with her own.
“Do what?”
“Put them
out before you’re done with them.”
He looked
down at the crumpled cigarette in his hand before looking back at her. “I
suppose I do.”
“Man, you
don’t even stay committed to cigarettes.”
He rolled
his eyes. “And you still try to find some semblance of meaning in every little
thing a person does.”
“Curse of an
English major,” she shrugged before standing up and gathering her things,
tossing them pell-mell into her bag. “Anyway, I have to go. It was nice seeing
you again, I guess.”
“Yeah, you
too,” he said as he watched her go before standing up and turning to find Lucy
standing a few feet behind him.
“Who was
that?” she asked, shaking a shopping bag irritably at the chair Andrea had just
vacated.
“An old
friend.”
“She didn’t look like a friend.”
He sighed,
getting up.
“You’ve been
smoking, haven’t you,” she said, sniffing his coat.
“Just the
one.”
“I thought I
told you to quit.”
“It was just
one---”
“Yes, well,
it’s not good for the baby.”
“Yes, dear.”